400 jobs on hold while company cleans up

CORNWALL — A packaging company employing more than 400 people is seeking a federal loan after it was wiped out by a massive overflow of the Moodna Creek during Hurricane Irene.

JAMES WALSH

CORNWALL — A packaging company employing more than 400 people is seeking a federal loan after it was wiped out by a massive overflow of the Moodna Creek during Hurricane Irene.

The creek rose dozens of feet over its banks, burst into part of the Cornwall Industrial Park containing the Superior Pack Group Inc., as well as six smaller business, and flooded nearly 300,000 square feet of work space before busting through a rear wall.

C.J. Fried, a manager at Superior Pack, said the company operated 24 hours daily, six days per week until the storm hit. He estimated lost products totaling at least $2 million. Machinery also had been damaged.

"We all had tears in our eyes," Fried said of witnessing the scene with other managers a day after the hurricane. "We didn't even enter the building. With every day that passes, we reorganize a little bit more."

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has asked the Small Business Administration to expedite the approval of a $5 million loan sought by Superior Pack.

The loan application was filed on Thursday, Schumer spokesman Matt House said.

"The SBA needs to process this application as quickly as possible because jobs are on the line," House said Friday. "We hope they'll approve the loan sometime in the next few days, to help Superior Pack get back up and running."

Fried said the company was using about 30 people to help clean the premises. "The other people we have, they call every day for updates," Fried said. "They want to know when we'll be back in business."

There are about 20 companies in the warren of warehouses and studios off Mill Street and stretching downward to the Moodna. Those on high ground were spared the turmoil that not only flooded the creek-side building to depths nearing 6 feet, but also ripped up a parking lot and loading docks, marooning a truck atop slabs of busted asphalt.

Jerry Cox of JBC Enterprises, a scrap and rubbish removal company, estimated that 1.8 million pounds of damaged goods needed to be hauled away from the building.

He toured the building with Joe Longobardi, the property manager, who seemed to still be absorbing the shock of what happened.

"The water came up to the height of the door," Longobardi said, pointing to an exterior wall, "and blew the Dumpster right through the (cement block) wall.

Then, 6 feet of water rushed through 280,000 square feet and took out seven businesses."

As a stench rose from the piles of waterlogged and apparently rotting food products inside the building and outside under the afternoon sun, Samuel Marcus, president of Simcha Candle, a neighboring business, pointed to a sea of rubble behind the building.

He's spent three weeks cleaning his space, worrying about supplying his customers with religious candles for the Jewish holidays, and wondering why the best his government can do is the possibility of an SBA loan.